Traditionally stadium seating has comprised long rows of wooden planks, usually 91/2" in width, mounted on various types of bases. Besides being notoriously uncomfortable, such seating has numerous other draw-backs. For example, with a typical wood or metal bench one cannot tell where his assigned seat is located, particularly if people are seated on the numbers or if the numbers are obsecure as is often the case. As a result, the occupants usually shift unevenly along the bench such that too many or too few people may occupy a bench, or some people may be crowded while othes are not. Wooden bench seats are also prone to wear, splintering, water soaking and/or rotting to say nothing of being carved upon. Also the fastening elements are subject to oxidation. A further, and sometimes serious, drawback of the wooden bench-seat is vandalism, particularly in the aftermath of an intense contest which may stimulate such activity. Thus, wooden bench-seats, unfortunately, can be ripped up and then turned into weapons, or firewood depending upon the needs and desires of the users.
A numer of attempts have been made to solve these and related problems. For example, it has been suggested to cover the wooden planks with cushioning material and to then cover the cushioning material with a heavy, tough plastic cover, or, in the alternative, to replace the wooden planks with metal channels of similar shape (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,104). Covering the planks with molded plastic elements without cushioning therebetween has also been suggested (U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,011). These suggestions helped preserve the wood, but they did not provide solutions to the other problems. Molding plastic covered seats as individual modular units, with each unit designed to accommodate a single person, and attaching them side by side to each other or to a base to form a continuous row of seats has also been suggested. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,012,818, 3,466,087). Such constructions satisfy the need for regular demarcation of assigned seats, but they are expensive and difficult to install. Other prior suggestions include providing stamped metal or molded plastic portable modular seat units adapted to being placed over conventional seating and having a compound curved shape for improved comfort, (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,970,638, 3,466,087). In addition various ways to connect such individual seating modules to each other and/or to a base to form continuous rows thereof have been suggested including the use of (a) attaching flanges bolted or soldered together (U.S. Pat. No. 1,978,494); (b) tie bolts (U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,818); (c) separate connecting members which fit over and clamp the adjacent ends of the modules (U.S. Pat. No. 3,466,087); (d) screws or bolts (including "tamper proof" heads) through the front walls or underneath surfaces of the modules (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,298,045 3,397,011, 3,531,157), or through the clamping members (3,466,087).
While some of these suggestions have provided the desired comfort, and others have adequately protected the underlying base, they have all been relatively expensive to construct and install, and none has provided completely hidden fasteners as distinguished from exposed "tamper-proof" bolt or screw heads. Another draw-back of the prior modular seat constructions is that their connecting components provide only a single fixed spacing. Thus, the installer in the field cannot vary the spacing between seat centers to make the units fit symmetrically to underlying bases of varying dimensions.
Accordingly, a basic object of this invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive seating module which will, at one and the same time provide (a) an adequate protective cover for an underlying base, (b) an improvement in seating comfort, (c) optional spacing between seat centers, and (d) a substantially tamper proof construction in which the connecting elements are not exposed to view. A further object is to provide such a module in which the interconnecting elements are part of a single basic structure, such that no separate connecting components need be provided, other than screws, bolts or barbed fasteners, whereby manufacturing and installation costs may be held to a minimum.